On the heels of the Daily News' article about people who don't have or really want cellphones for their disruptive qualities, the Times takes a look at the cellphone culture on trains. Amtrak, for instance, has a "quiet car" but just because it's called a quiet car doesn't mean the people are meek, as one violater had her cellphone "thrown it against the wall, smash[ed] into pieces" (an Amtrak conductor says the quiet car is self-policing). Metro-North riders are lobbying for their own quiet cars.
The article also mentions a site, Cell Manners, which tries to "promote cell phone civility." A noble cause Gothamist thinks, but, seriously, good luck. Maybe if a consortium of service providers put out some sort of PSA (we watch cellphone etiquette ads before movies and they semi-work...at least people can give/get dirty looks)...
For those who hate cellphones, perhaps they should enter in the Mobile Phone Throwing Championships in Finland on August 23, 2003. Their site hopes to appeal to those annoyed with:
- Unanswered mobile calls
- Wrong numbers
- "Sorry, this number cannot be reached at the moment "-situations
- "Sorry, this number does not exist any longer"-messages
- "Your battery is low"-messages
- Conversations that take place with the answering machine
You can throw either freestyle or original ("traditional over the shoulder style"), with individual, team, and junior divisions. [Via Metafilter]
